In the internal combustion engines found on most automobiles today, the engine takes in large volumes of air at a relatively rapid rate through venturis in a carburetor. A reduction of pressure generated in the venturis causes gasoline to be entrained in the air stream for combustion within the cylinders of the engines. The presently available carburetors accomplish approximately 37 to 43% vaporization of the gasoline in the air. This low vaporization rate results in incomplete and inefficient combustion of the gasoline in the engine cylinders, resulting in relatively poor gasoline mileage for the vehicle being driven and a high output of those products of combustion generally referred to as pollutants.
Today, massive efforts are being undertaken by the government and the public to accomplish fuel savings as well as to reduce pollution in the air. However, when a conflict arises between these two goals, in many instances the reduction of pollutants is given the greater priority. Obviously, it would be desirable to have an internal combustion engine with both fuel economy and low pollution output. Unfortunately, in reducing pollution output, many devices now required on automobiles actually end up reducing fuel economy. For example, those devices presently being required on many automobiles in the State of California to reduce the oxides of nitrogen emitted reduce the engine efficiency by as much as 8-15% thereby increasing the amount of fuel required.
In the past, many designers have undertaken development of devices which can be used on an automobile to improve the vaporization of fuel in the air flow traveling to the combustion chambers. Some of these devices have comprised fans or turbines mounted on the downstream side of the carburetor, the blades of which are tilted at angles to the axes thereof to cause rotation of the turbine by air flow. In certain devices, some of the blades in these turbines were so configured as to resist rotation of the turbine. In either of these systems, however, severe engine damage could occur if a blade broke, a bearing wore out, etc.
In other cases, flow impeding devices have been fixed between the carburetor and the intake manifold and have been provided with various blade-like configurations which served to control the direction of flow of the fuel-air mixture and provide vaporization surfaces for additional breaking up the fuel droplets.
Unfortunately, all of these prior art devices have been unsuccessful and/or undesirable in one manner or another. For example, some of them diminished the performance of the automobile significantly by increasing centrifugal turbulence to such an extent that the fuel could re-liquify on the wall of the intake manifold. In other cases, the devices presented such a large obstruction to the flow of the fuel-air mixture as to effectively "starve" the engine and prevent sufficient combustible mixture from reaching the combustion chambers. In all cases, however, even when the degree of vaporization was improved, it was only to such a minor extent that use of the device was still economically unfeasible.
As a result, a need still exists to provide a device, either in the form of a carburetor or apparatus to work together with a carburetor, which will significantly improve the percentage of fuel which will be totally vaporized in air, thereby improving engine efficiency and reducing the undesirable products of combustion.